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Electric to Glow Conversions

Hey small plane fans! I started a poll in the Q&A section of the airplane forums a couple of months back about starting an electric to glow conversion forum. As I'm sure you are all well aware of, there are many small electric ARFs kits, etc that are just perfect to throw a 1/2a to .15 size engine in with minimal modifications.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

I've done it,, we've all mentioned it, I would say just come here with the project,,glow is getting to be a smaller segment of the hobby every year...I just dont think there would be much traffic at a whole other forum....you did afterall come here to make your case....jmho...Rog

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

That is exactly why I'm doing it! There are some members of my local club doing this, and I think it really is a part of the hobby that is GROWING, not shrinking. There are plenty of us out here who would much rather enjoy the sight, sound, smell, and tinkering that comes to running glow power. Just charging a battery and watching a plane fly by with no more than maybe some prop noise is not much of a challenge.

If they can have a whole forum for planes built from chloroplast, then why not give us one too? Cmon, brother, if you like it, then why not contribute by helping make it happen. Just takes a second to hit the YES button on the poll.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is that it can not be an electric or glow bashing contest! This thread is for Electric to Glow conversions. It must be constructive!

We all know the properties of each power choice. We choose because this is what we like better. If someone comes on this thead and knocks glow power they must be ignored! We know that the majority will stay with electric and that is great! But our small group will continue to "Slime those planes made for electric"! Perhaps this is where this thread needs to stay.

I have started an electric to glow conversion and will post some pics soon.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

I have started an electric to glow conversion on the E-flite Taylorcraft. The first time I saw it I thought it would be great for a small glow engine!

I will show some pics of my conversion, and hopefully some others will show what they have done.
The first pic shows the elecric motor extention removed and the horizontal tray behind the first bulkhead removed.
#2 pic shows the triming for the tank to fit and the tank supports that are glued in.
#3 pic shows the Sullivan 4oz. tank in place and the 1/8th ply firewall cut to fit.

I will use an OS.10FSR. And my buddy who is doing this also is using a Mecoa .15.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

ORIGINAL: HellcatAce

That is exactly why I'm doing it! There are some members of my local club doing this, and I think it really is a part of the hobby that is GROWING, not shrinking. There are plenty of us out here who would much rather enjoy the sight, sound, smell, and tinkering that comes to running glow power. Just charging a battery and watching a plane fly by with no more than maybe some prop noise is not much of a challenge.

If they can have a whole forum for planes built from chloroplast, then why not give us one too? Cmon, brother, if you like it, then why not contribute by helping make it happen. Just takes a second to hit the YES button on the poll.

I got ya, but I disagree,even the post after the poll said "we need to move this somewhere else"..so you came here,,the electric or leckys as we call them here bring with them lots of small lightweight ARF's and thats great, but reason there are so many of them (bonus for us) is because the hobby IS headed that way....I went ahead and voted yes....but thats the reason I and many others will invite you here....generally we talk about engines up to around .25 because there is no other forum for the small stuff...lots of us have the Herr extra with a .10 or .15 engine in it (do a search for that one)....I applaud your intentions, but I dont think the traffic will support it, but good luck with it all....and a lot of us have a lecky or 2 also...Rog

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

Looks good, remember these planes are generally built for lighter applications,,look around and double check the seams and joints and add in some CA, and fuel proof that firewall with epoxy or similar.....Rog

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

I see where Rog is coming from and I agree that this is the place where most of the current electric to glow conversions probably happen and the glow segment is shrinking, but for someone looking to do a conversion they may not know which forum to go to, so I voted yes. It may not be a really busy forum, but still of value IMO. They only real problem I see is not so much lack of interest, but resistance from some people. I asked on a newsgroup once for info on a glow engine size equivalent to an electric motor so that I could convert a plane to glow and I got a few not so constructive replies.

Hey, if the forum doesn't go through, we'll be glad to have the discussions here.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

Great looking Scale Dail! And thanks to you guys for the support. I guess I should post a couple of pics of what started this all for me...
I call it the "Glowifly" PBY. It's my first conversion and it works very well for me. I always get asked what it is because the little Thunder Tiger GP.07 heads sticking out of the cowlings and mufflers make it look totally different.

It was fun, came out lighter than electric, and was less expensive as well. With the small tanks I only get about 4 minute flights with taxi in/out factored in, but I can fill the tanks much faster than a battery can charge!!!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

Hellcatace, I think thats cool!!!...bigger tanks might be better, but a hand launch would also lengthen your flight time too...Rog
I got a goldberg tiger 400 parkflyer that came with a crappy geared brushed motor that would only climb to about 6 feet and circle around, so I stuck a norvel .074 in it and it was great , until one day it decided to try a figure 9 on its own...I also have the same model but the chipmunk, but I have a brushless in it and havent tried it out yet....lots of great candidates to change to slime..

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

Thanks...

I thought about bigger tanks, but I already sacrificed a good chunk of the L.E. getting thise in there. Besides, they are just a tiny bit wider, which wouldn't let me use the stock nacelle/battery tray unless I literally squeezed a flex tank in there. The extra length would also have required me to cut holes in the back of the nacelles for the tank to stick out which would have messed with the scale looks too much. I know there's already a head and muffler sticking out, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

Sure I could hand launch it, but then it wouldn't look cool like this taking off! I'm a scale freak, so I'd rather fly less instead of skipping my scale taxi and take off. Yes I'm sick in the head, but at least I know it.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

Yeah I thought about that while I was writing,,that maybe the taxiing is the fun part for him so the 4 minute flights are ok...for me I like to deadstick in,,I have had a plane turn too sharp and fall outa the sky once or twice, but thats what I like to do...Rog

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

got a GWS mustang slope version on the way ( I think the slope just means no motor included and plain white), not sure if its gonna be lecky or glow, have to see when it gets here....nice work Scale and Pat.....Rog

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

got a GWS mustang slope version on the way

Be careful of that GWS Mustang. They're terrible flying airplanes! I recently tried one based on my experience years ago when I first got into electrics with a GWS Zero, which flew very well. The Mustang was not a good flier. I tried everything I could think of to get it to fly right, nothing worked. It eventually crashed and although it was definitely repairable I chose to pull the gear out and stuff the remains in the trash. And mine was much lighter than my Zero was due to modern equipment.

I happened to talk to a vendor at a swap meet last November and he told me the problem with the Mustang is the surface of the wing. I can't remember exactly what he told me but basically the wing's surface disturbs it's laminar flow therefore decreasing lift and stability. I would definitely do a search and look into what you need to do before you build it.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

ORIGINAL: flyinrog

got a GWS mustang slope version on the way ( I think the slope just means no motor included and plain white), not sure if its gonna be lecky or glow, have to see when it gets here....nice work Scale and Pat.....Rog

If you convert it to glow, please post pics and tell what engine and fuel tank. I'm thinking of converting mine sometime since the electric motor that came with it is no good.

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

Well I was thinking lecky, but if I went glow, I'd probably hack off a couple inches from the nose and put a blackwidow on it, especially since I'm not hearing great things about it...maybe put a couple carbon rods on each wing?...Rog

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

ORIGINAL: flyinrog

Well I was thinking lecky, but if I went glow, I'd probably hack off a couple inches from the nose and put a blackwidow on it, especially since I'm not hearing great things about it...maybe put a couple carbon rods on each wing?...Rog

RE: Electric to Glow Conversions

Yes, I'm sorry a Black widow is an .049 Cox engine, no longer made but 1000's of them on the bay it is a reed engine (as opposed to a carb or venturi) with the tank (8cc) built on the back, runs 3-4 minutes no throttle just wide open, so this plane would just be 2 channel probably aileron/elevator...Rog

Ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for?...ADHD, welcome to my world,it happens everyday!